Following last week’s riots new figures from the Ministry of Justice show a new record high prison population of 86,654. In just one week the number has risen by an average of 100 people a day. This has left many people to question if the prison infrastructure can cope and whether we may see a relapse of last week’s disturbances.
The figures are calculated from the number of people collectively jailed, young offender institutions and immigration removal centres. However, they do not include juveniles and children held in secure training centres and secure children’s homes.
The Ministry of Justice has said their “useable operational capacity” was 88,093 meaning the number of spare prison places is about 1,439 with only around 200 free spaces in Immigration Removal Centres.
The prison service is said to be looking at alternatives if the rise continues, including re-opening mothballed sites and using new temporary facilities. This comes as a huge blow to the government who only last year predicted a 3000 person fall in prison numbers by 2011.
The rate of the rise coupled with the Ministry of Justices figures have led many to worry that rioters and looters could be spared prison terms due to the overcrowding problem. This would be a travesty as what message does it send our own law abiding people if we cannot administer punishment when it is required.
This problem could quite simply be solved by fast-tracking the thousands of failed asylum seekers living in the thirteen Immigration Removal Centres around the UK, some of which are operated by private company for the UK Border agency.
Courts need to be given the freedom to sentence offenders to jail if required without having to worry about prison overcrowding in order to send a firm but fair message that public disorder on this scale will not under any circumstances be tolerated.
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Going back to the ‘Big Society’ article money is of no issue whatsoever for new prisons,it is purely an ideological nightmare for our liberal political class to have to admit that law and order has to exist and that for it to exist you need prisons.
In short to build prisons proves the ideological sickness and failure of liberalism.
I have a suspicion that there is the start of a fightback against lots of things ‘politically correct’ since the terrorists activities. We rather ironically have the black ghetto criminals and their white copyists to thank! Some good came out of pure evil!
Last year I spent a day taking a look around the Historic Dockyard at Portsmouth, a city I almost considered my second home when working as an IT consultant in the days when we had a defence industry and an army, navy and air force to produce things for.
A thirty minute boat ride around the harbour will bring tears to your eyes and rage to your heart as you see hulk after hulk that was once proud to fly the white ensign lying rusting as if in some soviet dockyard.
However, the thought comes to mind that at least some of these vessels, stripped as they are of what used to be their armament, should be able to be pressed back into use as prison ships.
Alternatively, we could always use a few of them to empty our jails of the convicted of other countries, and take them on a one way journey back home. That should solve our domestic detention issue for a while.
The one thig we MUST NOT do is free up the guilty on the grounds that there is no room for them. Like the inn that had a stable, we MUST ensure that there is ALWAYS a place for the newest inmate, no matter how unpleasant that might be. If all else fails, a tent city on some forsaken island hell hole should be erected, and the residents forced to wear pink….